Even for the most skeptical, sometimes some force, let's call it fate to limit the scope of what concerns us, puts us in front of unexpected people and situations. One of these happy coincidences, that surely will be one of the most remembered in the long history of the Festival, is that of the "discovery" of Pere Casanellas. A person who did not ask to be discovered, even at the beginning of the process of the documentary that his friends have dedicated to him was especially reluctant to spread it, but who nevertheless, with some little push from those who have known him, here we have found him, radiating the charisma, wisdom and simplicity that made the authors of the film that has united us fall in love in the first place.

In a country of ours where we like to say that we all know each other, that in mountaineering, as in other areas, we count people, feats and register it in our collective memory, the brilliant story of Pere had gone unnoticed. Because of the distance, because of his humility, because of the decades he had not returned to Osona where he was born, to a house where he lived very close to the Ter, in Manlleu. This proximity to the river prompted him to handle the canoe, and that of the Pyrenees to make some ascents like the Taga as a child. The rest of the story, how he went to Switzerland, how almost by chance he ended up in a cabin in Ticino that he has turned into a home, straddling the Mont Blanc and the Matterhorn, how he has lived a full life in his own terms, always tied to the mountains as a mountaineer, guide and monitor, and his philosophy of life, is dealt with in Pedro - A Life in The Mountains. A documentary made with love, which has served as a vehicle, a catalyst, for this meeting, for this small return that no one, not even himself, expected.

This year we have met a great person first, but who hides, out of modesty and because for him this is a daily pleasure, a great mountaineer. El Capitán, Aconcagua or Cho Oyu, are some of the milestones that Pere's firm step, which he still retains just by watching him descend the stairs of The Cirvianum, has covered in a prolific life in harmony with the mountain and nature.

Nice to meet you, Pere.